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Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Is 'Industrial' relevant?

Industrial as a 'genre' has always been problematic for me, as its always been a bit of a fluffy term.What exactly IS Industrial?What links VNV Nation, Combichrist, Skinny Puppy, Covenant, Hocico, Ministry and Apoptygma Bezerk so that they can exist alongside each other?Wikipedia (the wonderfully informative and unreliable source that it is) describes Industrial Music as:"Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes..."

and later continues:

"While the term was initially self-applied by a small coterie of groups and individuals associated with Industrial Records in the 1970s, it broadened to include artists influenced by the original movement or using an "industrial" aesthetic.[3] These artists expanded the genre by pushing it into noisier and more electronic directions. Over time, its influence spread into and blended with styles including ambient and rock, all of which now fall under the post-industrial music label. The most notable hybrid genres were industrial rock and industrial metal, which include bands such as Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, both of which released platinum-selling albums in the 1990s. Electro-industrial music is a more recent development. These three genres are often referred to as simply industrial."

So what we are left with is a music genre that is largely defined by the aesthetics and themes as opposed to the instrumentation, BPM or Rhythm..

So why persist with a genre name that is so unhelpful in encapsulating the music under its umbrella, and does the modern scene have any relevance to this genre?

Some would argue most modern Industrial music sits under the separate genres of EBM, Electro Rock/Metal, Future Pop and Hardstyle all of which regularly flirt with Dubstep, Drum and Bass, and the more mainstream electronic genres.

With established artists like Uberbyte making steps towards the more mainstream dance scene, and Combichrist reaching out to the Metal scene, perhaps things are already in motion.

I suppose time will tell as to whether Industrial will survive as a genre or be reduced to an aesthetically descriptive term only, much like Cyberpunk, Steam punk or one could argue, Goth.

I will leave you today with a little taster of a track that straddles a few different genres all at once...the beautiful, epic and majestic 'The Window' by Digital Diktator: